Police have used water cannon and tear gas to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who gathered in Taksim Square to protest against police violence, which has left a 14-year old boy fighting for his life in intensive care for 46 days.

The teenager, Berkin Elvan was only a bystander and was attacked
as he went out onto the street to buy bread on June 15. At the
time there were huge protests gripping the city as demonstrators
fought a war of attrition with the police over plans to redevelop
Taksim Square. His condition has now worsened due to an
infection.

Hundreds turned out on the streets to show their support for
Elvan, the Hurriyet daily reported, in a demonstration which was
called by his family, seeking justice and action against those
officers responsible for their son’s state.

But as police attempted to push protesters to the entrance of the
pedestrianized Istiklal Street, scuffles broke out.

One of the officers was firing rubber bullets at the protesters
from the top of an armored police vehicle, while one of the crowd
had been injured by an “unidentified object”, which hit
him on the head.

The parents of the teenager were themselves trapped in the crowd.

“I only want my son back,” Gulsum Elvan, the boy’s mother
kept crying, who was repeatedly calmed down by other
protesters.

Despite having reopened Gezi Park to the public in the second
week of last month, the authorities have not allowed any
demonstrations in Taksim Square.

The square was the scene of huge protests in May and June over
plans by Prime Minister Erdogan’s government to develop it into a
monument to the Ottoman Empire and a shopping mall. The protests
mushroomed into larger nationwide demonstrations against his
authoritarian rule and what protesters view as the increasing
Islamism of his government.